CHAPTER 13
Multispectral image analysis of glaciers and
glacier lakes in the Chugach
Mountains, Alaska
Jeffrey S. Kargel, Matthew J. Beedle, Andrew B.G. Bush, Francisco Carreño,
Elena Castellanos, Umesh K. Haritashya, Gregory J. Leonard, Javier Lillo, Ivan Lopez,
Mark Pleasants, Edward Pollock, and David F.G. Wolfe
ABSTRACT
The Chugach Mountains contain the largest non-
polar alpine glaciers in the world and include a wide
variety of glacier types: some are land terminating;
some calve variously into tidewater, lakes, and
rivers; some are heavily debris covered; some are
surge-type, whereas others are neither debris
covered nor surge type. Nearly all are retreating,
thinning, or both, though some rare ones are
advancing, and some are thickening at high eleva-
tions. To assist the further documentation of
changes, we establish an inventory of glaciers in
the eastern Chugach Mountains. Several case
studies of diverse glacier types showcase remote-
sensing applications and are used to derive new
knowledge of their current states and dynamical
behavior. Several of these glaciers currently dis-
charge into the Copper River and can be used to
understand the processes governing glacier dam-
ming of large rivers. The Copper River, along with
other major valley outlets from the Copper River
Basin, was dammed several times by ice during the
Pleistocene, forming a lake 10,000–20,000 km 2 in
area, called Glacial Lake Ahtna. Insights from the
modern Childs, Miles, and Allen Glaciers—each of
which fronts the Copper River—show that dam-
ming is not easily accomplished; direct encroach-
ment, complete crossing, and successful damming
require very low river discharge and probably intro-
duction of abundant rock debris from a landslide
onto the glacier. The last century has involved
degradation of the Little Ice Age piedmont lobes
of many valley glaciers in the Chugach Mountains
and especially its Copper River corridor. These
glaciers are generally losing over a meter per year
of surface elevation. In another chapter highlight,
we have found that crenulation and chevron folding
of medial moraines does not require surging, as is
commonly assumed; rather, the deformation can
occur by flow diversion, without any surge activity,
into ice-marginal lakes—a process we term a glacial
aneurysm.
13.1 INTRODUCTION
Alaska is among the most heavily glacierized parts
of the world outside the polar ice sheets and Arctic
ice caps. Comparing its net melting worldwide, of
19 areas of mountain and icecap glaciation defined
by Gardner et al. (2013), excluding the major ice
sheets, Alaska also has the largest contribution to
global sea level rise amounting to one fifth of the
world total. A wide range of climates and glacier
types and behaviors occur, and the Chugach Moun-
tains alone encompass much of this variability due
to the proximity of this range to the ocean and its
orography and inland expanse. However, in gen-
eral, despite the mountain range’s heavy glacieriza-
298 Multispectral image analysis of glaciers and glacier lakes in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska
Figure 13.1. Location map of some glaciers, mountain ranges, and other physiographic features of southeastern
Alaska (as discussed in this chapter). CRB-IL stands for Copper River Basin Interior Lowlands. Figure can also be
viewed as Online Supplement 13.1.
tion, it is experiencing a general rapid thinning and
retreat of glaciers (Arendt 2006, Berthier et al.
2010). The region includes some famous surge-type
glaciers, such as Bering Glacier (Roush et al. 2003),
and many examples of disarticulating and stagnat-
ing/thinning types (e.g., Tana Glacier), tidewater-
calving glaciers (e.g., Columbia, Harvard, and
Yale), river or lake-calving glaciers (e.g., Allen,
Miles, Childs, and Sheridan), landslide-influenced
glaciers (Allen and Sherman), as well as cases more
closely approximating idealized classical land-
terminating glaciers (e.g., Scott) (Fig. 13.1). Due
to the high-intensity tectonic environment (high
uplift and erosion rates and high seismicity), land-
slides and abundant supraglacial debris cover are
important in many Chugach Range glaciers; in fact,
spatiotemporal variations in debris cover can be
likened to spatiotemporal variability in climate,
since both are significantly variable on the centen-
nial scale and both have strong influences on
ablation rates.
As we review and exemplify in this chapter,
climatic heterogeneity, climate change, variable
glacier response times, and seismicity and landslides
are important influences on glacier behavior in the
Chugach Mountains. To provide a context for
understanding these phenomena, we provide an
overview of the Alaskan climate and regional tec-
tonics as they pertain to glaciation. In addition to
offering glacier-specific case studies of ASTER
image analysis of selected glaciers in the western
and central Chugach Mountains and an inventory
of glaciers in the eastern Chugach Mountains, we
also provide an examination of constraints and
concepts for the Pleistocene damming of the
Copper River, drawing from processes active at
several glaciers fronting the Copper River.
Glacier dynamics in the region are complex,
lending a rich variety of glacier behaviors. These
dynamics include the surge–waste cycles of Bering
and Malaspina Glaciers and many others (Molnia
and Post 1995, Roush et al. 2003, Muskett 2007,
Muskett et al. 2008, Shuchman et al. 2011, Burgess
et al. 2012), the influences of heavy debris cover on
most glaciers of the region, and calving of many
glaciers into tidewater, lakes, and rivers. Thus,
accurate documentation of the length, area, and
volume fluctuations of large numbers of glaciers
is important if we are to understand dynamical
linkages that also include climate change.
The inventory work and case studies reported
here have been made possible by satellite remote
 Regional context 299

Figure 13.2. Tectonic environment of the study area. (A–C) Space Shuttle astronaut photography (oblique high-
altitude photo) base image STS 099-701-75 (A and B are 220 km wide  330 km high through scene center)
showing pervasive tectonic lineation at the 10 km scale (A), annotations of some major faults and accreted tectonic
terranes (B), and locations of some glaciers discussed in the chapter (C). Isoseismic shaking is due to three mega-
earthquakes of the historic era. Shaking of magnitudes 7 and above is capable of triggering landslides of
unconsolidated debris and weathered bedrock. View direction roughly northwest. Figure can also be viewed as
Online Supplement 13.2.

sensing especially with use of Landsat 7 and
ASTER imagery (Kargel et al. 2005, Beedle et al.
2007, Raup et al. 2007, 2012). However, the ground
truth provided by field studies remains an essential
part of this type of investigation and is needed both
to lend confidence in remote-sensing analysis and to
provide essential ancillary information not readily
available by remote sensing.
13.2 REGIONAL CONTEXT
13.2.1 Geological context
Due to the widespread occurrence of debris-covered
glaciers and the extraordinarily high sediment
transport and glacial erosion rates in the Chugach
Mountains, active tectonics and geology are impor-
tant parts of the integrated glacier systems of the
region. The dynamics of the solid Earth are argu-
ably as important for the glaciers of this region as
climate dynamics are. Thus, it is worth taking a
closer look at the geological context than most
glaciologists studying some other regions might
be inclined to do.
Situated alongside the Gulf of Alaska, the
Chugach and St. Elias Mountains of southeastern
Alaska (Figs. 13.1, 13.2) exhibit high rates of
oblique plate convergence, and consequently the
region has rapid uplift, denudation, and debris pro-
duction (Jaeger et al. 1998, Continental Dynamics
Program 2003, Spotila et al. 2004). Comparable
rates may be found in the Mt. Cook area of New
Zealand’s Southern Alps but in few other places in
the world. An astronaut’s eye view of the Chugach
Mountains and adjoining areas shows at a glance
how the region’s tectonic structure imparts the
underlying lithologic and topographic framework
300 Multispectral image analysis of glaciers and glacier lakes in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska
controlling the glaciers and valleys of this region
(Fig. 13.2). The main curvilinear structures include
major faults, especially thrust faults and strike-slip
faults corresponding to sutures of the varied
accreted tectonic terranes that comprise southeast-
ern Alaska. These terranes represent crustal slices
(both continental and oceanic in nature) that were
compressed into Alaska in a series of microplate
tectonic collisions. As such, these slices and the
faulted sutures between them represent contrasting
lithologies, which erode differentially under the
influence of glaciation and other erosional pro-
cesses. The eroded fault zones appear as deeply
eroded curvilinear troughs and ridges forming the
quasiconcentric St. Elias, and Chugach Mountains
and the Alaska Range, where the centroid is in the
Gulf of Alaska.
Glacial valleys are organized not so much along
antecedent fluvial drainage valleys, as is often the
case for terrestrial glacier systems, but along these
tectonic structures. Although these glaciers are pre-
dominantly temperate and wet based, and hence are
highly erosive along their beds, tectonic uplift is so
rapid and seismic activity so intense that landslides
deliver most of the supraglacial sediment onto these
glaciers (Uhlmann et al. 2013). The great lengths of
many of these glaciers means that subglacial ero-
sional debris has ample opportunity to be ground to
silt and clay-size particles, such that most basally
eroded debris can be flushed out via meltwater
systems. The duality of (1) abundant fine-grained
silt and clay-sized material produced by bed erosion
and (2) the coarse supraglacial boulders and cobble-
size material produced by landslides and rockfalls is
striking. The result is formation of extreme debris-
laden glacier tongues and piedmont lobes, extra-
ordinary silt-laden outwash rivers, massive deltas,
a proglacial coastal plain, and offshore marine
sedimentary deposits.
The importance of tectonic and landslide activity
is evident in the shapes of the mountains. Whereas
U-shaped erosional glacial valley forms are present,
U valleys and other classic glacial alpine forms do
not dominate here as they do in many other heavily
glacierized and formerly glaciated alpine land-
scapes. Tectonic uplift, faulting, and landslides
produce many linear valleys and rugged peaks.
Such ongoing tectonic activity maintains the rough,
jagged topography of the mountains and commonly
obscures the classic smoothed, sculpted landforms
due to glacial bed erosion. Consequently, the ter-
rain does not look like Glacier National Park or
Scotland, where graceful U-shaped valleys domi-
Figure 13.3. Fluvial basin sediment yield versus basin
area for most of the world’s largest drainage basins
(from Milliman and Syvitski 1992), with selected
basins highlighted by blue squares (lowland rivers
and unglacierized basins) and red squares (active oro-
genic zones with heavy glacierization of headwaters).
The Copper River Basin, despite ranking 83rd for basin
area worldwide, has some of the highest sediment
yields for a basin that size and some of the highest
sediment yields per square kilometer of any basin larger
than 30,000 km 2 . The red line separates basins that are
primarily heavily glacierized and in active tectonic
zones from those that are not. Figure can also be viewed
as Online Supplement 13.3.
nate the landscape. This, however, is not a testa-
ment to the low rate of bed erosion, but rather
appears to be caused by a high rate of mass wasting
and landslides from alpine valley walls and the high
rates of tectonic disturbance. In fact, bed erosion
rates are also phenomenally high, as indicated by
the high load of suspended glacial flour in the
region’s streams. Despite the intensity of tectonic
uplift, the fact that the majority of Chugach Moun-
tains are not actually very lofty, compared with the
Alaska Range or the Alps or Himalaya, is an indi-
cation of the efficacy of erosion and sediment trans-
port in the alpine–glacier–fluvial system. The
fundamental underlying cause is the intense
precipitation in this maritime alpine system.
The absolute rate of erosion of the Chugach
Range and the Copper River Basin (CRB) is phe-
nomenal (Fig. 13.3). The suspended clastic load of
the Copper River (which is sourced largely from the
Chugach Mountains, but also the Wrangell Moun-
tains, Alaska Range, and Talkeetna Mountains)
has among the highest specific sediment fluxes (in
kg m 2 a1 ) in the world. According to Milliman
and Syvitski (1992), the Copper River Basin’s area-
integrated sediment production is about 60% that
of the Nile River Basin (pre-dam flux), despite the
CRB having only 2% the area of the Nile River
Basin. Among the 10 river basins closest in size to

the CRB and tabulated by Milliman and Syvitski
(those between 50,000 and 70,000 km 2 ), only two
have a slightly higher specific sediment yield than
the CRB. Those two are the nearby Susitna River
Basin, Alaska (Fig. 13.1) and the Po River Basin in
Italy. Those two basins as well as the CRB are all
heavily glacierized and occur in tectonically highly
active orogenic zones and in temperate maritime
climates. Deposition rates in nearby sediment sinks
are accordingly high: for example, over 20 mm yr1
at the front of the Copper River Delta and around
14 mm yr1 over the whole submarine part of the
Copper River Delta (Jaeger et al. 1998).
For context, the transpressional Denali fault
zone in central Alaska, near Mt. McKinley
(Denali), has been subject to uplift rates calculated
at about 1.5 mm/yr for the past 5–6 million years
(Lesh and Ridgway 2007). However, with much less
precipitation than the coastal Chugach and St. Elias
Mountains, glacial erosion on Denali proceeds
more slowly and the mountain has grown much
higher than is the case on either the Chugach or
St. Elias Mountains. Despite overall lower rates of
recent tectonic activity in the Alaska Range com-
pared with the Chugach Mountains, landslides still
make important contributions of supraglacial deb-
ris in the Alaska Range. For instance, three large
landslides, triggered by the M7.9 earthquake in
2002, were deposited on Black Rapids Glacier
(Alaska Range) and appear to have had large influ-
ences on glacier dynamics—mainly speeding up
flow and reducing ablation (Shugar et al. 2012).
Similar processes would likely be important for
glaciers in the Chugach Mountains, where land-
slides (some seismically triggered) are also impor-
tant (Uhlmann et al. 2013). Partly because of slope
failures and landslides, a precipitation and glacia-
tion-based limitation of mountain growth, similar
to that for the Chugach Mountains, occurs at the
tectonically active Mt. Cook massif in New Zealand
(see Chapter 29 of this book by Chinn et al.). The
Chugach Mountains take this propensity for fre-
quent landsliding to an extreme.
One of the major tectonic structures of the
Chugach Mountains is the Contact Fault, which
separates the Prince William Terrane (sedimentary
and volcanic rocks) on the south side from the
Chugach Terrane (sedimentary, volcanic, and meta-
morphic rocks) on the north side. The Contact
Fault has been exploited by Miles and Childs
Glaciers to form a major linear trough, which
extends eastward from Miles Glacier through the
Bagley Icefield.
Regional context 301
Another major fault is the Chugach–St. Elias
Thrust Fault System, which runs subparallel and
to the south of the Contact Fault (Fig. 13.2). The
crustal slice located between the Contact Fault and
the Chugach–St. Elias Thrust Fault System is part
of the Prince William Terrane and includes the
area’s loftiest peaks, including Mt. Steller (3,025
m), Mt. Miller (2,650 m), and Mt. St. Elias (5,489
m). The rapid uplift and disturbance of these moun-
tains drives the conditions under which massive
glaciers exist as well as considerable landslide activ-
ity, which in turn modifies glacier behavior. South
of the Chugach–St. Elias Thrust Fault System is the
Yakutat Terrane. Most of the largest glaciers in the
central and eastern Chugach Range are sourced in
the Prince William Terrane. From there they flow
both northward and especially southward across
the Wrangell and Yakutat Terranes (Fig. 13.2). In
addition to the aforementioned tectonic structures
and terranes, there are many other major tectonic
fault and large-scale lithological structures adding
to the lineated topographic fabric of the Chugach
Mountains.
Many geologists and geophysicists have found
that mountain glaciers are far more effective
erosional agents than equivalent river water mass
throughput (Montgomery and Brandon 2002, Con-
tinental Dynamics Program 2003). Total sediment
yields in the Copper River Delta, along the conti-
nental shelf near Bering Glacier, and in the adjacent
deeper marine environment contribute to the largest
sediment sink in North America, with total sedi-
ment deposition in the region exceeding 340–390
million tonnes per year. Vertical burial rates at
the front of the Copper River Delta exceed 20
mm yr1 (Jaeger et al. 1998).
13.2.2 Climatic context: Descriptive
overview and downscaled model
Alaska’s climate zonation may be divided into five
distinct regions ranging from dry polar (Arctic) to
continental (interior), and maritime. Mountain
ranges control the extent to which storms generated
in the Pacific Ocean reach the interior of Alaska.
Storms blowing into Alaska’s southern maritime
regions are generated by the Aleutian Low and
travel east and north up through the Gulf of
Alaska. These storms are frequent and often power-
ful starting in late August and continuing through
April, and commonly hit the Chugach Range one
after another for much of the wet season. When
these storms encounter coastal mountains they
302 Multispectral image analysis of glaciers and glacier lakes in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska
can be blocked entirely or they are lifted oro-
graphically as they rise over the mountains. The
ascending air loses much of its moisture on the
southern side of the ranges. As a result, what may
start as a warm wet storm system on the windward
side facing the Gulf of Alaska becomes a much drier
air mass on the continental side, where cold polar
air masses are also more likely to pool. Rain
shadows thus form in the lee of the mountains,
which, in the case of the Chugach Mountains
includes the Copper River interior lowland and
the valleys of the Matanuska and Chitina Rivers.
However, the pattern of mountains is complex,
and precipitation gradients are accordingly com-
plex (Fig. 13.4). Large-scale topographic structures,
such as the Copper River corridor through the
Chugach Mountains, can admit moist air into the
Chitina Valley. Generally, however, in transects
across the Chugach and St. Elias Mountains, pre-
cipitation declines with increasing distance from
the coast until the southern side of the Wrangell
Mountains is reached. Consequently, the Chugach
Mountains span two climate regions that are
roughly separated by the divide of the mountain
range (Fleming et al. 2000, Shulski and Wendler
2008). The south side of the range is part of the
Southcentral climate zone, where precipitation
totals are high and temperatures are moderate, as
just described. For example, annual average tem-
perature and precipitation at the town of Yakutat
between 1949–2005 was 6 C and 1,500 mm water
equivalent (w.e.), and some mountain areas receive
two to three times that precipitation. Precipitation
amounts are high through all months in this region,
with a slight peak in the fall.
Sharply contrasting with the maritime climate of
the south side of the Chugach Mountains, the north
side of the range is part of the ‘‘Interior’’ climate
region. Even though this area is quite close to the
coast, the intervening high relief results in some of
the driest conditions in the state. The town of
Gulkana, about 200 km from the Gulf of Alaska,
has an average annual temperature and precipita-
tion of 3 C and 300 mm w.e., respectively. Pre-
cipitation peaks during July and August in this
region, as winters are dominated by dry cold polar
air masses.
Positive shifts in Alaska’s temperatures, appear-
ing in both direct (Rasmussen 2004) and proxy
climate records (Mantua et al. 1997) occurred
during 1977 and again in 1989. These ‘‘regime
shifts’’ are associated with fluctuations in North
Pacific sea surface temperatures that have modes
of predominantly positive or negative anomalies
over multidecadal timescales. Some of Alaska’s
warmest years on record occurred during the
1990s and early 2000s (Walsh 2005, Truffer et al.
2005). Precipitation has increased on average by
about 10% over most of Alaska during the period
1949–2005 (Shulski and Wendler 2008), although
regions on the Arctic coast saw slight decreases in
precipitation (Stafford et al. 2000).
Fig. 13.4 shows a climate simulation for current
conditions (modern atmospheric and insolation
parameters). Using climate model downscaling to
6 km resolution, the computed zones of net annual
snow accumulation are restricted to certain massifs
(Figs. 13.4E, F, G). The model uses a global-scale
general circulation model (GCM) from the Prince-
ton GFDL atmosphere–ocean model (e.g., Gordon
and Stern 1982, Bush 2007, Clarke et al. 2009).
Daily output datasets are used to provide the
initial and boundary conditions for a mesoscale
model (MM), described below. To acquire high-
resolution climate data spanning the entire seasonal
cycle, and to take into account the effects of
interannual climate variability, the months whose
surface temperature and precipitation over the
Alaskan region are closest to the 10-year mean
(over the same region) from selected 10-year subsets
are used as input for the MM. The MM is the
nonhydrostatic Pennsylvania State University/
National Center for Atmospheric Research Meso-
scale Model 5 (PSU/NCAR MM5). MM5 is chosen
as an adequate mesoscale model for the purpose of
downscaling GCM output based on the availability
of complicated moisture and land surface param-
eterizations, as well as accurate results produced
in studies of mountainous and seasonally snow-
covered Iceland by Bromwich et al. (2005). MM5
is configured to run with 24 sigma levels with higher
vertical resolution near the surface and three
domains of roughly 54, 18, and 6 km horizontal
resolution (160  120, 94  94, and 124  124 grid
points for x by y, respectively), with domain time
steps of 162, 54, and 18 s, respectively. The solar
constant used is 1,324.69 W m 2 .
The 6 km domain has sufficiently high resolution
to resolve large valleys, such as that of the Copper
River Valley through the Chugach Mountains.
Given annual data from the MM simulation, a
simple calculation yields an estimate of annual
snow mass balance (in mm/yr), as a function of
snowfall (in mm/yr w.e.), incoming longwave radi-
ation (W m 2 ), sensible heat flux (W m 2 ), incom-
ing shortwave radiation (W m 2 ), and rainfall rate.
 Regional context 303
Latitude

Longitude

Figure 13.4. Downscaled regional climate model, 6 km resolution, of southern Alaska: (A) Mean annual tem-
perature, (B) annual precipitation, (C) annual rainfall, and (D) annual snowfall. (E, F, G) Computed glacier
equilibrium line altitudes for three different assumed snow albedo values of 65, 70, and 75%. Computed by the
University of Alberta Climate Modelling Group (led by Andrew Bush). Figure can also be viewed as Online
Supplement 13.4.

An estimate of equilibrium line altitude (ELA) is
simply taken to be the zero line of this function.
The model comes close in representing the areas
of glacier accumulation, but it underestimates pre-
cipitation in the wettest part of the Chugach
Mountains–St. Elias Range area; the model has
precipitation peaking near 3,000 mm w.e., whereas
actual values locally are just over 5,000 mm w.e.
This fault in the model’s representation of climate
is presumably due to its 6 km resolution, which
smooths out the highest peaks and ridges. However,
the model correctly shows the semiarid nature of
304 Multispectral image analysis of glaciers and glacier lakes in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska
the Copper River Basin’s interior lowland, the
distribution of permafrost, and many other key
patterns of precipitation and temperature.
In addition to a control simulation representing
the modern climate (Fig. 13.4), a projection of
future climate ending in the year 2110 has been
performed using atmospheric CO2 concentrations
prescribed by the IS92a-Fr-Central emission
scenario, closest to the upper B2 family of modern
IPCC projections, which predicts atmospheric car-
bon dioxide concentration to be almost 690 ppmv
by the year 2110 in a quadratically increasing fash-
ion (IPCC 2007). The future climate model shows
almost no areas of snow accumulation regardless of
snow albedo; a small accumulation area remains
only in the Alaska Range. In fact, snow accumula-
tion falls dramatically to almost zero in the third
quarter of the 21st century, according to our simu-
lations. Remnants of glaciers will persist well after
that, but only because it takes decades to centuries
to melt so much ice. Alaska’s glaciers are essentially
fated to extinction for greenhouse gas emissions
scenarios that involve increasing the present atmo-
spheric CO2 abundances by 75%. As we show in the
case studies below, there already have been substan-
tial shifts towards the demise of mighty glaciers due
to climate change of the past hundred years. With
glacier response times also playing a role, we expect
rapid accelerations of melt to continue unabated
throughout the 21st century.
13.2.3 Regional significance of glaciers in
the Chugach/St. Elias Mountains
Many quantitative assessments of glacier change,
climatic causes, and hydrological consequences
have been completed globally and for Alaskan
glaciers. Late 20th century/early 21st century disin-
tegration of mountain glaciers and other nonpolar
ice has been an important contributor to global sea
level rise. Continuation of recent trends in alpine
glacier melting, not counting that from Greenland
and Antarctica, may drive sea levels up by a further
0.4 m this century (Meier et al. 2007, Bahr et al.
2009). Alaska’s glaciers currently contribute the
most, among all nonpolar glaciers, to sea level rise,
comprising about one third to one half of global
glacier contributions; the largest contributors are
glaciers of the St. Elias and Chugach Mountains
(Arendt et al. 2002, 2008, Meier and Dyurgerov
2002, Berthier et al. 2010).
Rasmussen and Conway (2004) found that sum-
mer warming is most likely the dominant cause of
net annual melting of Alaska’s glaciers. However,
some recent years have had immense forest and
tundra fires in Alaska, and notable accumulations
of soot have been observed on areas as high as the
Bagley Icefield. It cannot be discounted that soot in
some years is an important cause of the high-melt
years in these glaciers’ records.
Alaska has about 75,110 km 2 of glacier area
(Molnia 1982), which compares closely with pre-
vious estimates of 73,800 km 2 (Post and Mayo
1971) and 74,700 km 2 (Post and Meier 1980). The
more recent Randolph Inventory (Version 2.0)
indicates 88,200 km 2 of glacierized area in the
Alaska region, but this region is defined to include
adjacent areas of Yukon and British Columbia
(Arendt et al. 2012). Of Alaska’s glacierized area,
nearly half occurs in the Chugach–St. Elias ranges.
It includes the two largest nonpolar alpine glaciers
in the world: Bering and Malaspina Glaciers. These
and other glaciers flowing from the Bagley Icefield
are featured in a case study in Section 13.3. In
addition to being enormous, these two glacier sys-
tems, along with neighboring glaciers, are extremely
complex: each has many tributaries, originate at
some of the highest elevations in North America,
and occur in a region of exceptionally high pre-
cipitation and mass throughput (Post and Meier
1980, Meier and Dyurgerov 2002). Bering and
Malaspina Glaciers are also notable because they
surge, periodically shifting mass from upper eleva-
tions to massive piedmont lobes near sea level
(Molnia and Post 1995). Many glacier termini in
this region, including those of both Bering and
Malaspina Glaciers as well as Allen Glacier (all
featured in the case study in Section 13.3), have
large areas of thick debris cover and local dense
vegetation cover (Molnia 2008).
Bering Glacier and Allen Glacier have large ter-
minal lakes where calving is substantial in some
years, and both glaciers have significant ice-
marginal lakes and numerous small supraglacial
ponds, which also affect glacier dynamics. Other
glaciers in the region have their own unique
dynamical aspects; for example, the glaciers of
College Fiord (also featured below) are tidewater-
calving glaciers existing side by side, yet they have
opposing states of advance and retreat; and Allen
and Miles Glaciers, also featured below, are calving
glaciers (Allen calving into a lake, and Miles into an
expanded section of the Copper River, termed
Miles Lake) and are variegated in having portions
that are clean ice and other portions that are heavily
debris covered. These complexities hinder glacier

inventorying and lead to complications in measur-
ing volume change or assessment of the climatic
significance or nonclimatic causes of length and
area changes (Arendt et al. 2006, 2012, Molnia
2007, Beedle et al. 2008, Berthier et al. 2010).
Indeed, because so many factors are involved in
the dynamics, any one glacier may seem to exhibit
an entirely ambiguous relationship to climate,
although collectively clearer relationships emerge.
The collective results from large inventory work
(such as from GLIMS) and from gravity data or
laser altimetry analysis can provide results that are
much more reliable and clearly connected to climate
change. Such results can mix glaciers having widely
differing response times, and so there remains some
ambiguity about the relevant time periods control-
ling glacier responses (see Chapter 33 of this book
by Kargel et al.).
Fig. 13.4 reflects the climatic heterogeneity of the
region, including the very high precipitation regime
along the coastal ranges and the much drier interior
Alaska Range and Talkeetna Mountains. The
climate model results for equilibrium line altitude
are sensitive to snow and ice albedo, which has
tended to be quite low due to accumulation of soot
from forest fires (Figs. 13.4E, F, G). Whereas
glaciers in the region already are shrinking, climate
changes occurring this century eventually will cause
nearly complete deglaciation of this part of Alaska.
Already, for instance, in some years almost no
accumulation occurs on the Bagley Icefield.
Little Ice Age advances of land-based glaciers
in these regions were centered on the middle 13th,
early 15th, middle 17th, and the last half of the 19th
century ad (Calkin et al. 2001). Tree ring width
records suggest these advances were in response
to summer cooling events (Barclay et al. 2002, Wiles
et al. 2004). Nearly all glaciers, especially those
below an elevation of 1,500 m, have retreated
and thinned after the end of the Little Ice Age, likely
in response to climatic warming (Molnia 2007).
Several glaciers did advance during this period
but most are or were formerly tidewater glaciers,
whose cycles of advance and retreat are asyn-
chronous between glaciers and are not closely
linked to changes in climate (Meier and Post
1987, Sturm et al. 1991, Molnia 2007).
Aircraft laser altimetry measurements have
shown that about 85% of 67 glaciers in north-
western North America had a mass balance
between 1950/1970 to the early 1990s of 52  15
Gt yr1 (Echelmeyer et al. 1996, Arendt et al. 2002).
A repeat sampling of 28 of these glaciers between
Regional context 305
the early 1990s to late 1990s/early 2000s indicate a
doubling of the rate of mass loss (to 96  35 Gt
yr1 ). Glaciers of the western Chugach Mountains
were responsible for approximately 15% of these
changes. Updated laser altimetry data for this
region quantified the mass balance during 1950/
1957 to 2001/2004 to be 7.4  1.1 Gt yr1 . Nearly
half of the loss of mass in this region resulted from
Columbia Glacier, a rapidly retreating tidewater
glacier that has lost mass through dynamic pro-
cesses largely independent of climate. Berthier et
al. (2010) found much the same pattern, but they
deduced, using different modern datasets, a one
third smaller total mass loss rate over a similar
(not identical) time period.
Satellite gravimetry is also useful to isolate Earth
mass changes resulting from high-magnitude wide-
scale cryospheric variations. Since its launch in
March 2002, the Gravity Recovery and Climate
Experiment (GRACE) has been acquiring ultra-
precise intersatellite K-band range and range rate
measurements between two polar-orbiting satel-
lites. The changes in range rate sensed between
the GRACE satellites provide a means of mapping
static and time-variable gravity. Three GRACE-
based estimates have been made for the mass bal-
ance of glaciers near the Gulf of Alaska: 110  30
Gt yr1 for the period 2002–2004 (Tamisiea et al.
2005); 101  22 Gt yr1 for the period 2002–2005
(Chen et al. 2006); and 84  5 Gt yr1 for the
period 2003–2007 (Luthcke et al. 2008). Luthcke
et al. (2008) pointed out the complexities arising
from spatially widespread but temporally restricted
datasets, whereby analysis of data over a 3-year
period (deleting just the final year of the four) can
make a 20% difference in the magnitude of negative
balances—hence formal uncertainty in the negative
balance total computed by Luthcke et al. (2008) is
only 6%, but the uncertainty related to interannual
macro-weather variability can contribute much
larger errors for short-term studies.
A combination of GRACE and laser altimetry
data has been used to assess the mass balance of
glaciers in the St. Elias and eastern Chugach
Mountains during 2003–2007 (Arendt et al. 2008).
According to the GRACE results the region lost
21.2  3.8 Gt yr1 , and similar results were obtained
from extrapolation of aircraft altimetry data col-
lected roughly during the same time period.
Many glaciers sampled with airborne (Arendt et
al. 2006, 2008) and satellite (Sauber et al. 2005) laser
altimetry, and ASTER DEMs and other means of
topographic mapping (Berthier et al. 2010) show a
306 Multispectral image analysis of glaciers and glacier lakes in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska
characteristic pattern of low-elevation thinning,
with a maximum thinning rate at the position of
the present day terminus, and slight thickening or
no change at high elevations. These patterns of
elevation-dependent thickness changes are charac-
teristic of glaciers responding to long-term climatic
warming, especially where relief is high (Schwitter
and Raymond 1993). Several glaciers, such as
Harvard Glacier, are thickening over much of their
length (Berthier et al. 2010), with maximum thick-
ening at the terminus. Others such as Bering Glacier
are surge-type glaciers (Lingle et al. 1993) and have
regions and periods of thickening at low elevations
due to the rapid transport of mass from high to low
elevations during a surge episode. Berthier et al.
(2010) found overall rapid thinning of the tidewater
Columbia and Yale Glaciers for the period from the
1950s to 2007. The wide variation of behavior of
tidewater glaciers is the result of surge-like behavior
alternating with tidewater breakup and then
wastage and regrowth. This is the classic tidewater
glacier cycle.
Of the 23 glaciers sampled in Arendt et al. (2006),
20 retreated, 1 advanced, and 2 did not change in
area during the approximately 50-year period of
measurement. Sherman Glacier had a negative mass
balance but did not lose area because of a large
landslide that covered the terminus after the 1964
earthquake. In fact, numerous glaciers of the
Chugach Mountains have debris-covered termini
largely as a result of highly erodible bedrock in
the region, and the rapid mass turnover of these
glaciers. Many such glaciers are thinning without
associated decreases in area, introducing errors into
methods of mass balance assessment that rely on
proxy indicators of glacier area or length.
13.3 CASE STUDIES: GLACIER
INVENTORYING AND
ASSESSMENT OF GLACIER
DYNAMICS
13.3.1 A preliminary inventory of the
Bering–Malaspina glacier complex
13.3.1.1 Towards a comprehensive inventory
This region of mountains and ice is one where the
superlatives largest, longest, most, and tallest are
needed when referring to glacier extent, surging
glaciers, precipitation rate, glacier melt, complexity,
vertical relief, and mountain height. Just one of its
glaciers, Bering Glacier, is comparable in area to the
sum of all the glaciers in mainland Europe! The size
and beauty of this region can be easily lost amidst
the incomprehensibly massive quantities describing
glacier length, area, volume, elevation and thick-
ness, and volume change.
The composited Bering Glacier–Steller Glacier
system—just a part of the greater Bering Glacier–
Malaspina Glacier–Bagley Icefield integrated com-
plex—terminates mainly in freshwater lakes (Vitus
Lake and Berg Lake), which together discharge up
to 44 km 3 of freshwater annually into the Gulf of
Alaska (Josberger et al. 2010) (i.e., more than twice
the average annual flow of the Hudson River). The
net annual loss of ice (thinning mainly) averaged
over the 1972 to 2003 period was about 6 km 3 /yr
(Muskett et al. 2009), which is about one third the
average annual flow of the Hudson River.
Until recently, the lack of a complete global
glacier inventory presented significant problems
when trying to predict glaciological contributions
to sea level rise. The lack of a complete inventory
for the glaciers of the U.S.A. and Canada had been
one of the primary obstacles in estimating global
ice volume (Ohmura 2007). The newly finished
Randolph Glacier Inventory Version 2 (Arendt et
al. 2012), an almost complete collection of glacier
outlines for the globe, is an excellent step toward a
global glacier inventory, but it still needs to be
augmented with additional metadata to be truly
useful for glacier change studies. The stewards of
GLIMS Regional Center 4 (Alaska) are currently
working to help fill this data void. Establishment of
reliable inventories is thus key to the broader under-
standing we seek.
This section presents initial results from recent
efforts to inventory the Bering–Malaspina glacier
complex (Fig. 13.5), conducted by Matthew Beedle
for GLIMS. Though incomplete, the inventory
includes 20 of the largest glaciers that comprise a
majority of the glacierized area from Yakutat Bay
in the east to the Copper River in the west, and from
the Gulf of Alaska in the south to Mount Logan,
the Granite Range, and Bremner River in the north
(Fig. 13.6). While most of these glaciers are com-
pletely in Alaska, about half of Malaspina Glacier
and small portions of Agassiz, Bering, and Marvine
glaciers are within Yukon Territory, Canada. This
work is only a partial inventory in terms of both
spatial coverage and included glacier parameters.
Our goal in this section is to present an assessment
of the factors that make this glacierized region
unique and globally significant: including area,
debris cover, and area–altitude distribution
(hypsometry).
 Case studies: Glacier inventorying and assessment of glacier dynamics 307

Figure 13.5. Map of Alaska showing locations of the Bering–Malaspina complex, Hubbard Glacier, and 53
glaciers of the Juneau Icefield.

Figure 13.6. Twenty glaciers of the Bering–Malaspina complex are outlined in light blue with debris-covered
areas outlined in light green. Glacier identification numbers are placed at the corresponding glacier termini (or on the
glacier for the three that terminate in Icy Bay) and match the numbers, as well as the associated glaciers in Table
13.1. The dark blue line is the Alaska/Yukon Territory border. Band 4, 3, and 2 composite images of the three Landsat
ETMþ scenes used in this study are labeled at their respective upper-left corners with path, row, and date of
acquisition. From Beedle (2007) and the GLIMS database. Figure can also be viewed as Online Supplement 13.5.
308 Multispectral image analysis of glaciers and glacier lakes in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska
13.3.1.2 Data, methods, and errors
Using GLIMSView (Raup et al. 2007) the glacier
outlines for this inventory were digitized from three
Landsat 7 ETMþ scenes (Fig. 13.6). These outlines
can be downloaded from the GLIMS website, and
further information can be found in Beedle (2007).
Individual glacier basins were digitized with the
goal of including all ice that contributes to a com-
mon terminus. All internal rock areas (nunataks)
have been excluded from glacier polygons. Flow
divides were determined manually using elevation
data from USGS topographic maps, visible linear
surface features, and crevasse patterns. Continuous
debris cover was outlined separately in an attempt
to delineate all areas where the debris mantle is
sufficiently thick (>5–10 cm) to significantly reduce
ablation (e.g., Nakawo and Rana, 1999). For
detailed discussion of GLIMS glacier definition,
outlining methods, and case studies see Raup and
Khalsa (2006) and Beedle et al. (2008).
To create hypsometries, the outlines of glacier-
ized areas were used as masks to extract elevation
data in 50 m elevation bins from a 1972 15 min
USGS digital elevation model (DEM). This DEM
was derived from 1:63,360-scale topographic maps,
which were created from aerial photographs
acquired from various years between the 1950s
and early 1970s (USGS 1993). Note that this
DEM has variable dates of imaging and includes
errors of up to about 10 m (Muskett et al. 2003).
There have been two glacier surges of Bering
Glacier and two wasting phases (with thinning
and recession) since the USGS topographic map-
ping, as well as both wasting and a surge subsequent
to the Landsat 7 imaging of the 2000/2001 scenes;
thus, the glacier surfaces are significantly different
now from those of the 2000/2001 Landsat scenes
and aerial photography from the 1950s-1970s.
Those data are used here to gain a general under-
standing of hypsometry.
Where glaciers have clean-ice margins, the error
of glacier margin position can be significantly better
than a single Landsat ETMþ pixel width (30 m/
pixel), but for the visual presentation of data, the
error can be taken as half the linewidth (i.e., 150
m). Debris-covered glacier margins (most margins
to varying degrees) and especially vegetated debris-
covered glacier areas can be much more difficult to
discern, and large human subjectivities arise.
Errors in glacier margins digitized from ASTER
and Landsat data are discussed in much more detail
in the chapter on quality in the GLIMS glacier
database (see Chapter 7 of this book by Raup et
al.) and in the chapter on Mongolian glaciers (see
Chapter 22 of this book by Krumveide et al.).
13.3.1.3 Results
The 20 major glaciers of the Bering–Malaspina
complex inventoried here have a combined surface
area of 12,758 km 2 , or over 17% of the estimated
74,700 km 2 total Alaska glacierized area (Table
13.1). The two largest of these, Bering and Mala-
spina glaciers, each comprise over 4% of the total
Alaska glacierized area, and their areas combined
comprise more than half of the total 20-glacier
study area.
Debris-covered area, which exists on 16 of the 20
glaciers, totals 2,075 km 2 , or over 16% of the total
20-glacier area. Again, Bering and Malaspina
Glaciers are responsible for over half of the total
area of debris-covered glacier ice. Nine glaciers
have at least 15% of their surface covered by a
debris mantle, with Agassiz and Yakataga Glaciers
each having over 40% debris cover, and one,
Marvine Glacier, with 60% debris cover. All digi-
tized debris-covered areas are in ablation areas,
below the 2000/2001 transient snow lines. The vast
bulk of the Bering–Malaspina complex debris-
covered area is at the lowest elevations (<500 m),
comprising at least half of the glacierized area
closest to sea level.
Molnia (2008) presents area measurements for
most of the 20 glaciers inventoried here, affording
a comparison with areas measured for this study
(Table 13.2). Prior area measurements were made
by map planimetry or computer digitization with
USGS topographic maps (Molnia and Post 1995,
Molnia 2008). In general, prior area measurements
are greater than the glacier areas compiled here.
The 16 glaciers with prior area measurements in
the earlier survey totaled >800 km 2 more than
the area of the same 16 glaciers measured in our
survey using 2000/2001 imagery (Table 13.2). This
is primarily due to prior measurements significantly
overestimating Bering and Malaspina glacier area,
although some prior measurements significantly
underestimate individual glacier areas.
Hypsometric curves illustrate the unique ‘‘shape’’
or the elevation distribution of each individual
glacier in this study (Fig. 13.7). These curves can
be used to assess accumulation area ratio (AAR) at
a given equilibrium line altitude (ELA) and indicate
a glacier’s response susceptibility to a change in
ELA. The ‘‘flat’’ portions of curves indicate either
 Case studies: Glacier inventorying and assessment of glacier dynamics 309

Table 13.1. Twenty Bering–Malaspina complex glaciers ranked by area. Area rank corresponds to glacier labels in
Fig. 13.5.

Fig. 13.6 Glacier GLIMS glacier ID Image acquisition Area % of Debris- %

ID and date Alaska covered Debris
size rank total e area cover
(km 2 ) (km 2 )

1 Bering G217991E60521N 2000-08-31, 2001-09-10 a 3,629.66 4.9 561.46 15.5

2 Malaspina G219787E60289N 2000-08-31, 2001-07-19 a 3,209.32 4.3 618.57 19.3

3 Yahtse G218130E60340N 2000-08-31 1,031.42 1.4 0.00 0.0

4 Tana G217393E60642N 2000-08-31, 2001-09-10 a 822.29 1.1 50.87 6.2

5 Agassiz G219251E60184N 2000-08-31 763.72 1.0 346.23 45.3

6 Steller G216453E60499N 2001-09-10 741.35 1.0 62.77 8.5

7 Miles G215764E60620N 2001-09-10 382.86 0.5 10.87 2.8

8 Martin River G216132E60534N 2001-09-10 349.04 0.5 111.15 31.8

9 Marvine G219795E60080N 2001-07-19 297.34 0.4 178.70 60.1

10 Guyot G218180E60193N 2000-08-31 265.36 0.4 0.00 0.0

11 Bremner G216660E60749N 2001-09-10 254.19 0.3 39.44 15.5

12 ‘‘Unnamed’’ b G218458E60693N 2000-08-31 184.33 0.2 6.91 3.7

13 ‘‘Tsaa’’ c G218198E60113N 2000-08-31 169.67 0.2 0.00 0.0

14 Fan G216306E60753N 2001-09-10 164.40 0.2 14.07 8.6

15 Baldwin G218695E60795N 2000-08-31 126.73 0.2 5.79 4.6

16 Wernicke G216167E60748N 2001-09-10 105.47 0.1 15.82 15.0

17 Yakataga G217909E60160N 2000-08-31 103.42 0.1 44.41 42.9

18 Tyndall G218901E60278N 2000-08-31 68.82 0.1 1.36 2.0

19 ‘‘Grotto’’ d G218444E60038N 2000-08-31 48.96 0.1 0.00 0.0

20 Van Cleve G215869E60697N 2000-08-31 40.06 0.1 6.13 15.3

Total 12,758.41 17.1 2,074.5 516.3

a
The scene acquired on the first date was primarily used (i.e., for digitization of >95% of glacier area).
b
‘‘Unnamed’’ Glacier is in the basin west of Baldwin Glacier and lacks a formal or colloquial name.
c
Tsaa Glacier is the unofficial name Austin Post gave to the glacier at the head of Tsaa Fjord (Molnia 2008).
d
Grotto Glacier is the unofficial name given to the glacier on the western wall of Tsaa Fjord (Molnia 2008).
e
Total Alaska glacierized area is assumed to be 74,700 km 2 (Post and Meier 1980).

large glacierized areas at a similar elevation or a
wide flat extent of glacier ice (e.g., Marvine Glacier
from 0 to 500 m); whereas the ‘‘steep’’ portions of
curves indicate either a limited glacierized area over
a range of elevations or a narrow steep extent of
glacier ice (e.g., Malaspina Glacier from 750 to
1,500 m). See Furbish and Andrews (1984) for a
complete discussion of glacier hypsometry, hypso-
metric curves, and the importance of glacier shape
and topographic distribution.
310 Multispectral image analysis of glaciers and glacier lakes in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska

Table 13.2. Comparison of 16 of the 2000/2001 glacier areas with previous area estimates.

Glacier 2000/2001 area USGS Atlas area Difference

(km 2 ) (km 2 ) a (km 2 )

Bering 3,629.66 4,349 719.34

Malaspina, Agassiz, and Marvine b 4,270.38 5,008 737.62

Yahtse and Guyot c 1,296.78 1,432 135.22

Tana 822.29 400 422.29

Steller 741.35 824 82.65

Miles 382.86 225 157.86

Martin River 349.04 290 59.04

Bremner 254.19 150 104.19

‘‘Tsaa’’ 169.67 150 19.67

Fan 164.40 60 104.40

Wernicke 105.47 60 45.47

Tyndall 68.82 150 81.18

Van Cleve 40.06 30 10.06

Total 12,294.97 13,128.00 833.03

a
USGS Atlas areas can be found in Molnia (2008). Area estimates are those of Bruce Molnia, Field (1975), or
Viens (1995).
b
The Malaspina Glacier area presented in the USGS Atlas includes the piedmont lobes attributable to Agassiz
and Marvine Glaciers.
c
The total area for Yahtse and Guyot Glaciers is given in the USGS Atlas.

Total Bering–Malaspina complex hypsometry is
plotted in both Fig. 13.7 panels as a heavy black
curve. About 90% of the total Bering–Malaspina
complex is below 2,250 m, and the relatively con-
sistent slope of this curve from 0 to 2,250 m indi-
cates that the cumulative area increases consistently
by about 10% of the total area every 250 m. Panel 1
of Fig. 13.7 shows hypsometric curves of 16 of the
20 Bering–Malaspina complex glaciers separated
(by color) into four similar groups. The first three
groups (brown, gray, and blue) have similar shapes
(with the bulk of their area at mid-elevations), but
at different elevation ranges. The final group
(orange) has the bulk of their area at very low
elevations.
Panel 2 of Fig. 13.7 shows hypsometric curves of
the four remaining glaciers in this study, as well as
curves for additional ice masses for comparison.
These eight ice masses all have roughly similar
elevation extents, but dramatically different shapes.
The hypsometric curves of Malaspina, Tyndall, and
Steller Glaciers have ‘‘steep’’ sections at mid-
elevations, indicating large glacierized areas above
and below a narrow constriction (an hourglass
shape). The Bering Glacier hypsometric curve has
a relatively consistent slope, indicating similar
amounts of glacierized area at most elevations (rec-
tangular in shape). The Hubbard Glacier hypso-
metric curve indicates the unique shape of this
large tidewater glacier, and the Juneau Icefield
hypsometric curve shows what might be described
as a more ‘‘classic’’ area–altitude distribution of its
53-outlet glaciers, with the bulk of its area at mid to
upper elevations.
13.3.1.4 Implications/Discussion
Manual digitization of such large ice masses is
tedious and time consuming. However, given the
complications due to glacier debris cover, vegeta-
 Case studies: Glacier inventorying and assessment of glacier dynamics 311

Figure 13.7. Hypsometric curves of individual glaciers and glacier systems. This figure focuses on the glacierized
area below 3,500 m, which comprises the bulk of the Bering-Malaspina complex glacierized area. (Upper panel )
Hypsometric curves of 16 of the 20 individual Bering–Malaspina complex glaciers, and total Bering-Malaspina
complex hypsometry. Four groups with similar hypsometries are identified by color. (Lower panel ) Hypsometric
curves of the remaining four individual Bering-Malaspina complex glaciers, as well as a selection of differently
‘‘shaped’’ ice masses that have roughly similar elevation extents.
312 Multispectral image analysis of glaciers and glacier lakes in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska
tion cover, glacier thermokarst, bordering pro-
glacial lakes, and areas of seasonal snow cover that
necessitate manual correction of automated ratio
images (e.g., Andreassen et al., 2008), we are not
convinced that significant improvements in
efficiency or accuracy can be made in such a region
using automated versus manual methods. Improve-
ments in accuracy may be possible using more
painstaking manual delineation with field valida-
tion.
The 20 glaciers of the Bering–Malaspina complex
inventoried here comprise a significant portion
(17%) of all glacierized area in Alaska. Previous
work estimates there to be more than 100,000 indi-
vidual glaciers in Alaska (Molnia 2008). Thus, the
area results of this study suggest that a very small
percentage of glaciers are the most important in
terms of total glacier extent and volume.
Debris covers over 16% of the total Bering–
Malaspina complex area, and the bulk of the glacier
ice at the lowest elevations (<500 m). To assess
volume change of these debris-covered areas it is
imperative to accurately account for debris extent,
thickness, and impact on ablation rates.
Comparison between the glacier areas derived
here and those of previous studies reveals that pre-
vious area measurements and estimates may be too
large. Unfortunately, we cannot directly compare
previous glacier outlines with those being produced
today, and therefore it is not possible to assess why
the total areas differ. Differences in area stem from
actual glacier recession and advance, but also result
from the resolution and accuracy of maps and
imagery used for planimetry or digitization, the
inclusion or exclusion of internal rock (nunataks),
and delineation of flow divides. Therefore, accurate
glacier area change measurements cannot be ascer-
tained by comparing previous measures of glacier
areas with those being produced recently.
Assessment of Bering–Malaspina glacier complex
hypsometry reveals a wide range of individual
glacier shapes that will influence how these ice
masses respond to a changing ELA. The unique
shape of the Bering–Malaspina complex is domi-
nated by the huge expanse of low-elevation glacier
area of Bering and Malaspina piedmont lobes.
With a roughly rectangular shape, the AAR of
the Bering–Malaspina glacier complex will change
linearly with ELA. However, the AAR of other
glaciers will not change linearly with ELA; this is
typified by Malaspina Glacier, which will not see a
significant change in AAR until the ELA reaches
above about 1,750 m. Individual glacier hyp-
sometries will provide valuable information that
can be used to assess mountain glacier susceptibility
to disintegration in a warming climate (Khalsa et al.
2004). Coupling of the ASTER Global DEM and
GLIMS glacier outlines will enable such analysis
globally, and will be a key contribution to under-
standing mountain glacier change.
A longer baseline of high-quality satellite imagery
of the Bering Glacier complex extends back to an
excellent Landsat 5 TM scene acquired in 1986 and
a Landsat 7 ETMþ scene from 2002 (Fig. 13.8A,
B), though we have not yet analyzed the differences.
The pair is best viewed in the PowerPoint presenta-
tion (Online Supplement 13.6), where the motion of
ice and changes in glacier margins can be discerned.
In August 2003, a set of oblique air photos from a
commercial airliner showed a fresh calving interface
on that part of the terminus that adjoins proglacial
Lake Vida (Fig. 13.8C, D). On July 28, 2011, an
overflight of parts of Bering Glacier helped to
document supraglacial and ice-marginal lakes
(Fig. 13.8E–K), a few of which are difficult to dis-
cern in ASTER and Landsat imagery. Many good
examples were found where the glacier’s flow had
been diverted into ice-marginal lakes. A likely pro-
cess is discussed in Section 13.3.4.2 on Miles Glacier
and Van Cleve Lake.
13.3.2 Glaciers of College Fiord: Harvard
Glacier and Yale Glacier
13.3.2.1 College Fiord overview and data
availability
College Fiord1 is located in the northern sector of
Prince William Sound (Fig. 13.1). The fjord is 40
km long and 5 km in its wider section. It contains
five tidewater glaciers, five large valley glaciers, and
dozens of smaller glaciers, most named after
renowned East Coast colleges (women’s colleges
for the northwest side, and men’s colleges for the
southeast side). College Fiord was discovered in
1899 during the Harriman Expedition, at which
time the glaciers were named. The first detailed
glaciological studies were reported by Tarr and
Martin (1914).
Most of College Fiord’s glaciers show recessional
behavior since the first mapping of their termini at
1
‘‘Fiord’’ is the proper place name spelling of College
Fiord, according to USGS, but fjord is the more
generally accepted landform spelling, adopted from
Norwegian, which we use here except for the place name.
 Case studies: Glacier inventorying and assessment of glacier dynamics 313

Figure 13.8. Bering glacier complex. (A) Landsat 5 TM image, acquired in 1986. (B) Landsat 7 ETMþ scene,
acquired in 2002, of the same area with some haze evident over parts including Bering Glacier (BG), the Stella Lobe
(SL), the Bagley Icefield (BI), the upper part of Tana Glacier (TG), Martin River Glacier (MRG), and Miles Glacier
(MG). The yellow squares pinpoint the location of panels D–K on the overall image. (C, D) Photos acquired July 8,
2005 (from a commercial airliner) of Bering Glacier and the large proglacial Lake Vitus, including a freshly calved
sector of the glacier terminus. In panel C, the scene width across the center of the image is about 25 km, and the
distance from the foreground to the Bagley Icefield behind the Chugach Mountains is about 75 km. (E–K) Low-
altitude oblique air photos of lakes and ponds on and adjoining Bering Glacier (photos acquired July 28, 2011). (E)
Supraglacial ponds in crevasses. (F, G, and H) Ice-marginal lakes of the Stella Lobe of Bering Glacier, including
Lake Sofron (F) and Berg Lake (G). (I–K) Ice-marginal lakes of the main lobe of Bering Glacier. In (I) the small lake
(500  900 m) is indicated by an arrow; medial moraines show that glacier flow has been diverted into the lake. In
(J) a similar flow diversion has taken place, though the lake is only about 400 m wide. In (K) the lake at upper right is
about 900  2,000 m. See Online Supplement 13.7 for a high-resolution version. Photos C–K by J. Kargel.
314 Multispectral image analysis of glaciers and glacier lakes in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska

Figure 13.9. Low-altitude oblique air photos of College Fiord and its glaciers. (A) The two largest glaciers are
Harvard (left) and Yale (right). (B) Harvard Glacier; note the cruise ship, approximately 260 m long, for scale. Scale
is further given by the calving front of Harvard Glacier, which is 2,450 m wide where it fronts seawater and extends
about 80 m above the waterline. (C) Yale Glacier and a rock ridge exposed by the recent retreat of the terminus.
Photos acquired through the window of a commercial airliner on July 8, 2005 by J. Kargel. Figure can also be
viewed as Online Supplement 13.8.

the beginning of the 20th century. Some important
exceptions to this general behavior show the impor-
tance of local and dynamic conditions in the evolu-
tion of glaciers (e.g., Molnia 2007, Sturm et al.
1991). Harvard Glacier and its neighbor, Yale
Glacier, both tidewater-calving types (Figs. 13.9,
13.10), exhibit a superficial similarity to one
another. This resemblance is remarkable because
the pair includes one glacier that is in long-term
advance (Harvard, which has advanced about 3
km in about a century) and the other that is in rapid
retreat (Yale, which has retreated about 6 km in the
same time) (Molnia, 2008). Fig. 13.9 shows Yale’s
terminus fronting an unvegetated knob of bedrock,
an unvegetated lateral moraine, and distinct vegeta-
tion trimlines; these are all hallmarks of a retreating
and thinning glacier. Harvard Glacier, on the other
hand, lacks an unvegetated lateral moraine or
vegetation trimline, and in fact the glacier has a
terminus that has penetrated onto a heavily vege-
tated slope, suggestive of glacier advance. Indeed,
field observations indicate that Harvard Glacier
began advancing between 1905 and 1911 (Trabant
et al. 2002); ironically, this is roughly when most
 Case studies: Glacier inventorying and assessment of glacier dynamics 315
Figure 13.10. College Fiord. (A) Portion of a
1:250,000 USGS topographic map (Anchorage), com-
piled mainly from 1:63,360 and 1:24,000 maps that
were surveyed in 1950, 1952, 1960, and 1962 and
revised in part using aerial photography taken in
1978 and 1979; thus, it contains data acquired from
1950 to 1979. (B) 2000 ASTER image (bands 321-
RGB composite). (C) Portion of a 2006 Landsat 7
ETMþ image (bands 342-RGB composite). Figure
can also be viewed as Online Supplement 13.9.
other big glaciers of Alaska had just initiated thin-
ning and retreat following their maximum elonga-
tion at the culmination of the Little Ice Age.
Harvard Glacier has advanced since that time,
whereas most glaciers, including Yale Glacier, have
retreated ever since. As we indicate below, neither
the dynamics of Harvard nor of Yale Glacier are
primarily indicative of climatic forcing; rather, it is
the tidewater cycle at work.
Local climatic conditions make the acquisition of
cloud-free scenes for Alaska difficult, but the study
area is covered by at least one usable image from
ASTER. Cloud-free ASTER scenes of the section of
the College Fiord that include Harvard and Yale
Glaciers were collected on June 24, 2000 (Fig.
13.10B). These images do not cover the whole
extent of the glaciers, and only their terminations
can be studied; furthermore, the scenes exhibit some
saturation in snow-covered areas. This set of com-
plications is fairly common in Alaska, where perva-
sive cloud cover is a problem, snow-free or low–
snow cover periods are brief, and ASTER acquisi-
tions are constrained by a regional limitation
imposed by ASTER Mission Operations (MO).
The latter limitations very widely affect ASTER
coverage of Alaskan glacierized regions and are
related to acquisitions in other parts of the world
that were deemed of exceptional priority, and to
engineering constraints on the per orbit amount
of data that can be acquired and downlinked.
A usable cloud-free Landsat 7 ETMþ (ETMþ)
scene was collected on May 24, 2006 (Fig. 13.10C).
This image covers the whole Yale Glacier (from
origin to termination) and also most of Harvard
Glacier, although in this case the terminus is miss-
ing from the scene. A major problem with this scene
is that it was acquired very early in the melting
season and the seasonal snow cover is still wide-
spread in the area. Pixel saturation is also wide-
spread in the scene. As with all ETMþ scenes
acquired after failure of the instrument’s Scan Line
Corrector on May 31, 2003, the image contains
large data gaps (Fig. 13.10C), but it still allows
observation and mapping of glacier termini.
Another important dataset that provides infor-
mation about glaciers is the USGS 1:250,000-scale
topographic map (Anchorage) (Fig. 13.10A). This
map was published in 1962 with a limited revision in
1985. Thus, we have glacier terminus positions
traced in 1962, 2000, and 2006, sufficient to show
the opposing states of advance (Harvard Glacier)
and retreat (Yale Glacier) of these glaciers.
13.3.2.2 Retreating Yale Glacier and advancing
Harvard Glacier
Harvard Glacier, a tidewater-calving glacier located
at the head of College Fiord (Figs. 13.9, 13.10), and
one of the few advancing glaciers in the area, has
advanced almost 3 km since the early 20th century
(for a complete study of the evolution of Harvard
and Yale glaciers see Molnia 2008). The ASTER
image acquired in 2000, coupled with the ETMþ
2006 image and the older USGS 1962 map data
316 Multispectral image analysis of glaciers and glacier lakes in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska
Figure 13.11. Shifting glacier termini at Harvard
(upper left) and Yale (lower right) glaciers. Orange
lines indicate termini in the 1962 topographic map,
red lines indicate termini in the 2000 ASTER image,
and green lines indicate the positions in the 2006
Landsat image. Figure can also be viewed as Online
Supplement 13.10.
show that Harvard Glacier is still advancing at a
significant rate (Fig. 13.11), as shown previously by
Molnia (2007, 2008).
Yale Glacier, on the other hand, has shown
inexorable retreat (Fig. 13.11). Yale Glacier has
retreated more than 6 km since the early 20th
century. The terminus of Yale Glacier has retreated
so far that it now presents two different parts: a
tidewater-calving terminus to the southeast and a
land-based terminus to the northwest (Fig. 13.9C).
The 1:250,000-scale topographic map (Fig. 13.10A)
shows bedrock that was exposed in 2000 but was
mostly covered in ice in 1962, in agreement with
observations that recession of the northwestern part
of the terminus occurred in the second half of the
20th century (Molnia 2008). The 2006 ETMþ
image shows that this recession continued (Fig.
13.11) with the same tendency and approximate
rate observed previously by others.
13.3.2.3 DEM generation and analysis
A combination of digital elevation models (DEMs)
and other remote-sensed data is useful for the study
of mountain glaciers. Paul et al. (2004) demon-
strated the utility of applying elevation data for
automated multispectral classification and mapping
of debris-covered glaciers. The use of DEMs has
also been used to monitor glacier elevation changes
and mass balance in Alaska, including at College
Fiord (e.g., Berthier et al. 2010).
College Fiord is located above 60 N latitude, at
the limit of SRTM coverage and therefore no
elevation data from the SRTM mission are avail-
able. The ASTER instrument acquires an along-
track, nadir, and aft-looking near-IR stereoscopic
image pair at 15 m resolution, thus providing for
the generation of DEMs (see Chapter 5 of this book
by Quincey et al.). For DEM production we have
used the ASTER DTM add-on module for ENVI
remote-sensing software. ASTER DTM not only
extracts the digital terrain model (DTM), but also
produces radiometrically and geometrically cor-
rected Level 1A to Level 1B images from the VNIR
instrument, and orthorectifies VNIR bands, thus
allowing us to preprocess the image. We use as
the starting image an ASTER L1A Reconstructed
Unprocessed Instrument Data V003 product. We
have determined that coherence of elevation values
is improved over the single-scene standard ASTER
DEM product if we made the DTM initially from
Level 1A data. After the ASTER VNIR image is
corrected and the DEM is extracted we combined
both datasets using the ArcScene 3D display en-
vironment for ArcGIS 9.2 (Fig. 13.12).
As part of an initially separate and somewhat
parallel investigation, we also used a SPOT
DEM, acquired through the SPOT SPIRIT pro-
gram, produced from a SPOT-5 image acquired
on September 22, 2007.2 In Fig. 13.13 we show a
color hillshade rendered from that DEM, and we
also show the approximate outlines and centerlines
of the Harvard and Yale Glacier catchments. It is
immediately seen that the two glaciers differ greatly
in their geomorphic structure, with Harvard having
many large tributaries and Yale having few and
then only small ones. The catchments so depicted
include arêtes and other exposed rock or snow-
covered areas that are not strictly part of glaciers
but are part of the snow catchments (where it may
be assumed that wind and avalanching delivers the
snow onto the glacier surfaces for the most part). In
Fig. 13.14 we show differing histograms and eleva-
tion profiles along the centerlines of the two
glaciers. Besides exhibiting opposing advance and
2
SPOT image acknowledgment: SPIRIT Program #
CNES 2009 and SPOT image ‘‘GES 08-028 Chugach
Mountains’’ 2009, all rights reserved. Permission to use
and publish here was granted through the SPIRIT
program.
 Case studies: Glacier inventorying and assessment of glacier dynamics 317

Figure 13.12. Oblique perspective 3D view of College Fiord, produced from the 2000 ASTER scene, showing
Harvard (left) and Yale (right) Glaciers from the south. Vertical exaggeration of the composite image is 10. Figure
can also be viewed as Online Supplement 13.11.

Figure 13.13. SPOT DEM (colorized) draped onto a hillshade produced from the DEM. Approximate manually
delineated Harvard Glacier catchment basin (blue outline) and Yale Glacier catchment (red outline) from a SPOT
DEM, which includes SPIRIT program material (& CNES 2009, SPOT image ‘‘GES 08-028 Chugach Mountains’’,
all rights reserved). Permission to use the data, as rendered here by one of the authors (G.L.), and to publish here was
granted through the SPIRIT program. Artifacts are present, including the appearance of raised relief on College Fiord
southwest of the glaciers (north is up). Figure can also be viewed as Online Supplement 13.12.
318 Multispectral image analysis of glaciers and glacier lakes in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska

Figure 13.14. Elevation histograms (A and B, Harvard and Yale Glaciers, respectively) and centerline profiles of
the catchment basins (C and D, Harvard and Yale, respectively) produced from a SPOT DEM. Data derived from
SPIRIT program material (& CNES 2009, SPOT image ‘‘GES 08-028 Chugach Mountains’’, all rights reserved).
Permission to use the data and to publish here was granted through the SPIRIT program.

retreat, the two glaciers differ profoundly in their surges, or perhaps to differing glacier response
elevation distributions. This may pertain to bedrock times to climatic changes. Berthier et al. (2010)
basin relief or to possible histories of dynamic found that the two glacier tongues are, not sur-
drawdown related to fast-calving episodes or prisingly, also in opposing states of thickening
(Harvard) and thinning (Yale). Thickening as well
Table 13.3. Comparison of recent sizes and some as the advance of Harvard Glacier is anomalous
change parameters for selected glaciers of the (relative to most glaciers in the region) for the past
Chugach Mountains. century, whereas the thinning rate of Yale Glacier
also is anomalously rapid. This situation is clearly
Glacier Area Area change Mean net
connected to the tidewater cycle, which is asyn-
rate balance rate
chronous among nearby glaciers (Molnia, 2007).
(km 2 ) (km 2 yr1 ) (m yr1 , w.e.)
It is presumably an oscillatory behavior, but the
Harvard 324 þ0.05 þ0.16 period of observations covers just parts of their
tidewater cycles. Also notable in the results of
Yale 167 0.37 0.96 Berthier et al. (2010), both glaciers exhibit slightly
thinning accumulation zones, with rates typical of
Scott 167 0.03 0.72
glaciers in the Chugach Range.
Sherman 58 0.00 0.64 A tabular comparison of area (km 2 ), rate of
change of area (km 2 yr 1 ), and mean net mass bal-
Allen 214 0.27 0.88 ance (m yr 1 ) provides a concise comparison of
these and other glaciers’ dynamical behaviors in
Drawn from Arendt (2006), who presented a detailed assessment
of changes in many Chugach Mountain glaciers using GPS-based recent decades (Table 13.3, data drawn from
altimetry of glacier centerlines acquired in 2001 (Harvard and Arendt 2006). Harvard Glacier stands out not only
Yale Glaciers) and 2004 (the other glaciers) and photogram- for its thickening and advance (Table 13.3) but also
metric topography based on aerial photography from the
1950s and Landsat 7 ETM+ imagery from 2002. for its concave-up profile (Fig. 13.14C); Yale stands
 Case studies: Glacier inventorying and assessment of glacier dynamics 319
out for its rapid retreat and thinning (Table 13.3)
and convex-up longitudinal profile (Fig. 13.14D).
Harvard Glacier shows indications that its
advance has been protracted. Presumably its up-
valley sections have thinned dynamically and thus
could be out of balance with climate, hence it has
local positive specific balances or less negative local
specific balances than it would have had if the
dynamic thinning had not occurred. In downvalley
sections, Harvard Glacier may have acquired
strongly negative local specific mass balances. Thus,
when dynamic thinning is complete, the upvalley
sections will likely thicken while ice flow speeds
eventually decline and downvalley sections thin.
Conversely, Yale has been in protracted retreat
and thinning. This stage may come to a halt as
the terminus retreats and becomes grounded—
already, much of the terminus is on dry land. Har-
vard and Yale Glaciers could be approaching the
end of their advance and retreat phases, and stabil-
ization or reversal of changes in their length could
occur soon. Neither the recent dynamics nor poss-
ible future changes of Harvard and Yale Glaciers
reflect on climate change. These glaciers are good
examples of the tidewater cycle in action.
In sum, despite the overall superficial similarities
between Harvard and Yale Glaciers, they actually
are quite different glaciers. They are primarily simi-
lar only in size, tidewater terminations, and adja-
cency. Their distinctive hypsometric characteristics
as well as the intrinsic instabilities imposed by their
tidewater-calving behavior thus provides a starting
point for interpretation of different dynamical
trends in the past century.
13.3.3 Scott Glacier
Scott Glacier (Fig. 13.15A) and Yale Glacier
present an interesting set of similarities and con-
trasts of their characteristics and behavior. The
two glaciers have similar areas and thinning rates
(Table 13.3), except near the termini, where Yale is
thinning very rapidly compared with Scott (Arendt
2006, Berthier et al. 2010), and they have similarly
low debris-covered areas. Scott Glacier, however, is
losing area an order of magnitude more slowly than
Yale Glacier (Table 13.3). The obvious explanation
for the difference in area retreat rate is that Scott is
a land-terminating glacier, whereas Yale is a tide-
water glacier in its retreat phase.
Tidewater glaciers (e.g., Harvard and Yale
Glaciers), due to the classic tidewater cycle, tend
to have extremely low or extremely high values of
area loss (or gain) rates and thinning (or thickening)
rates. Lake-calving glaciers (e.g., Allen, Miles, and
Childs Glaciers) likewise can behave erratically.
Surge-type glaciers (e.g., Bering) also have erratic
retreat and advance behavior. Heavily debris-
covered glaciers (e.g., Sherman) can be insensitive
to climate change due to insulation by debris cover.
Land-terminating clean-ice nonsurging glaciers,
such as Scott Glacier, can ideally reflect the influ-
ences of climate change.
Surface flow speeds and vectors were computed
for Scott Glacier and a major tributary from images
acquired almost exactly two years apart in 2009 and
2011 (Fig. 13.15). The vector field shows the usual
behavior of glaciers with maximum flow speeds
roughly down the centerline, and flow speeds dimin-
ishing both laterally and toward the terminus. The
thinning behavior of Scott Glacier in recent decades
is very similar to that of most glaciers in the
Chugach Mountains; in the upvalley half, thinning
has been mainly between 0 and 1 m yr1 , and in the
downvalley half, thinning has been mainly between
1 and 2 m yr1 (Berthier et al. 2010, who used
ASTER and SPOT-5 DEMs). Arendt (2006), using
different datasets including laser altimetry, com-
puted a mean thinning rate of 0.72 m yr1 . Both
sets of estimates also rely on old topographic maps.
There is nothing about the surface velocity flow
field, thinning patterns, surface morphology, or
glacial geomorphology that indicates anything
unusual about Scott Glacier. As such, Scott Glacier
would be a good choice for establishment of a new
benchmark glacier, since it is also located close to a
major town (Cordova), thereby allowing easy
access. Hence, we plan to initiate a more detailed
study of this glacier than has hitherto been avail-
able; this analysis of surface flow speeds is a begin-
ning.
13.3.4 Glaciers of the Copper River
corridor: Childs, Miles, and Allen
Glaciers
13.3.4.1 Calving glaciers and near damming of
the Copper River
Surprisingly little has been documented about the
fascinating dynamics of several glaciers fronting the
Copper River where it cuts through the Chugach
Mountains. One of the best studies of the Copper
River corridor’s glaciers, and indeed many others in
the Chugach and St. Elias Mountains, is one of the
oldest (Tarr and Martin 1914), but it is still relevant
320 Multispectral image analysis of glaciers and glacier lakes in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska

Figure 13.15. Flow speed vector field of Scott Glacier, Chugach Mountain, Alaska. (A) ASTER VNIR RGB false-
color composite of Scott Glacier on September 5, 2009. (B) Vector field representing the direction and magnitude of
displacement of the glacier between September 5, 2009 and September 11, 2011. (C) Displacement map and flow
speed of Scott Glacier. The vector data were filtered in both magnitude and direction too aggressively, such that
some valid vectors (e.g., on the tributary glacier) are not reflected on the speed map (panel C). Figure can also be
viewed as Online Supplement 13.13.

because of its detailed historical baseline from a
century ago.
Several glaciers currently or recently calved into
the Copper River, and several more have retreated
up side valleys from locations that in former times
clearly included terminations along or near the river
(Fig. 13.16) (Tarr and Martin 1914). Of these, three
glaciers are of special interest because two of them
(Miles and Childs Glaciers) are currently calving
directly into the river and the third one (Allen
Glacier) was doing so as recently as a century
ago, when the three glaciers together nearly
dammed the Copper River (Fig. 13.16B, C). Today
each of these glaciers has vegetated and still ice-
cored remnants of debris-covered piedmont glacier
lobes, which a century ago extended almost com-
pletely across the Copper River’s width. Two of the
glaciers (Allen and Childs) entered the river from
the west, and between those two, Miles Glacier
entered the river from the east. The Copper River
was not dammed by these Little Ice Age advances,
but the river was forced to meander tightly amongst
the piedmont lobes. At the peak of the Little Ice
Age (estimated to have been in the mid-19th cen-
tury, since LIA moraines were already heavily vege-
tated in 1910), the Copper River flowed through
deep gorges that were rock walled on one side
and ice walled on the other, or ice walled on both
sides (Fig. 13.16B). Another glacier south of Childs,
Godwin Glacier, also had a large piedmont lobe
that, while not crossing the Copper River flood-
plain, penetrated into it.
The fact that these glaciers calved directly into
the river (and two of them still do) and collectively
 Case studies: Glacier inventorying and assessment of glacier dynamics 321

Figure 13.16. Evolution of three calving glaciers of the Copper River corridor, Chugach Mountains, Alaska. (A)
ASTER false-color RGB image from VNIR bands 3, 2, and 1, acquired August 22, 2003. (B) Reconstructed Little Ice
Age (LIA) extent of the glaciers’ piedmont lobes. (C) The three lobes as of 1910, according to mapping by USGS
and the National Geographic Society (Tarr and Martin 1914). (D) Portion of ASTER scene outlined in panel A.
Figure can also be viewed as Online Supplement 13.14.

nearly dammed the river suggests that further
extensions of these glaciers during the Pleistocene
may have been a key damming point making poss-
ible the existence of the vast ice-dammed Glacial
Lake Ahtna. Several of today’s glaciers came close
to blocking the Copper River just over a century
ago, but failed to do so, which further suggests that
damming such a large river is very difficult to
achieve by glacier advance. There apparently are
further requirements besides robust glacier
advances (e.g., restriction of flow, reduced summer
water temperature of the river, and perhaps dis-
charge of abundant coarse rock debris). In the
absence of rock debris and lowered water tempera-
tures, as glaciers advance and divert the river into
narrow ice-walled gorges, the ability of the river to
thermally and mechanically erode and transport ice
and debris is increased. Apparently, in the absence
322 Multispectral image analysis of glaciers and glacier lakes in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska
of full glacial conditions, this effect is so powerful
that river blockage becomes almost impossible.
Hence, the Little Ice Age did not produce river
blockage, though it was seemingly close to doing so.
13.3.4.2 Miles Glacier and glacial aneurysms (not
surging) as a cause of crenulated medial
moraines
Highly deformed medial moraines can result from
unsteady or oscillating flow between a main trunk
glacier and its tributaries (whether due to surging of
the trunk glacier, a tributary, or simply unsteady
flow short of an actual surge). Common distortions
in the downvalley path of moraines are especially
evident when small deformation amplitudes are
compressed and further distorted in compressing
glacier flow regimes near the terminus; sometimes
medial moraines can appear to be like a giant train
wreck. Distorted moraines can appear as sequences
of z-folds or sinusoids as a result of repeated surge
cycles or oscillating flow speeds and unsteady rela-
tive input of ice from the glacier trunk and tribu-
taries. Flow distortions can produce paraboloid
shapes of supraglacial landslides (Post 1969, Law-
son 1996, Copland et al. 2003). The link between
surge behavior and distorted medial moraines is
clear in some cases, but many in the glaciological
community have taken the link further, such that
crenulated medial moraines or especially those with
chevron-folded or looped moraines are indicators
of glacier surging. There are other views that defor-
mation even in surge glaciers is sometimes caused
not by the surge behavior per se but by intrusions of
ice into the trunk glacier during a quiescent phase
(Lawson 1996). We suggest here that chevron fold-
ing and other deformation have little to do with
surge behavior, but are caused instead by a process
we term ‘‘glacial aneurysms’’.
A glacial aneurysm is basically a diversion of
glacier flow into an ice-marginal lake. Miles Glacier
and its flow into the ice-marginal Van Cleve Lake
is described here as the type example (Figs. 13.17,
13.18). Flow diversion causes flow separation of
one pathway, which empties into the lake, from
another pathway that continues to flow down the
valley of the main trunk glacier. Flow divergence
results in a zone of flow stagnation and compressive
flow in one direction and dilation transverse to
compression. Any slight waviness of impinging
medial moraines (e.g., produced upvalley as slight
crenulations due to the slightly unsteady input of ice
from tributaries) is then accentuated by compres-
sive flow. The resulting chevron-folded medial
moraines can be swept down the glacier’s trunk if
the perturbing influence of the ice-marginal lake
waxes and wanes over time. Long Glacier
(61 50 0 N, 144 00 0 W, Wrangell Mountains, Alaska)
is a good example of a glacial aneurysm that has
propagated far down the glacier tongue.
Miles Glacier shows evidence of formation of
chevron-folded moraines without any clear involve-
ment of surging. Rather, flow diversion into the ice-
marginal Van Cleve Lake appears to be responsible
for moraine deformation. We have determined the
ice flow vector field for two ASTER image pairs,
one covering about a 1-year gap and the other an
8-year gap between the images of each pair. Flow
assessment was carried out by manual feature
tracking; in the case of the pair with an 8-year
gap this was necessary because the time between
images was too long and the gain settings and
saturation state of the images too different to enable
automated feature tracking. The 1-year pair also
had differences in gain and saturation, but the time
span was short enough that either automated or
manual tracking could work; we used manual
tracking.
The results (Fig. 13.18) show a flow stagnation
zone close to where flow divergence occurs, with
one branch of the flow entering Miles Lake (a
broadening of the Copper River) and the other
entering ice-marginal Van Cleve Lake. Chevron
folding occurs near the flow stagnation zone. Such
folded moraines can become geometrically
stretched and deformed (as the ASTER image time
series shows) and propagate downvalley, as the case
of Long Glacier noted above effectively demon-
strates.
The previous chapter highlights the case of
Iceberg Lake, which also involves a glacial aneur-
ysm where there are no indications of historic surge
behavior (see Chapter 12 of this book by Wolfe et
al.). In fact, glacial aneurysms are extremely
common among Alaska’s glaciers. The commonly
claimed ubiquitous link between surging and medial
moraine deformation is not a safe claim to make
without additional evidence supporting a surge.
Even some cases of definite surge-type glaciers, such
as Bering, also have glacial aneurysms at work. Of
course, ice-marginal lakes can also contribute to
surge activity because of the role they play in the
basal drainage of water; moreover, surges can con-
tribute to the unsteady flow found in glacial trunks
and tributaries and thus to crenulations in medial
moraines.
 Case studies: Glacier inventorying and assessment of glacier dynamics 323

Figure 13.17. ASTER image time series of Miles Glacier and Van Cleve Lake (A, B, C, D), and low-altitude oblique
air photos (E, F). (A) Landsat 5 TM image acquired in 1986. (B, C, D) ASTER images acquired on August 22, 2003,
August 17, 2004, and August 12, 2011. This figure is also available at high resolution as Online Supplement 13.15,
and can be viewed as a slide show on Online Supplement 13.16 where display in a rapid sequence helps to discern
changes, especially in the flow of ice longitudinally as well as laterally near the glacial aneurysm discussed in the
text. Van Cleve Lake (upper-right quadrant) is shown at various stages of filling, with abundant iceberg clutter in
panels B and C. Comparison with panel A shows that the glacial aneurysm associated with Van Cleve Lake—
responsible for crenulations in the medial moraines—has been active for a long time. (E) Calving margin of the
glacial aneurysm along Van Cleve Lake. (F) Calving front along Miles Lake. Panels E and F are photos taken by
J. Kargel, July 27, 2011.
324 Multispectral image analysis of glaciers and glacier lakes in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska

Figure 13.18. Surface flow vector field of Miles Glacier from ASTER image analysis. (A) Flow vector field
assessed over an 8-year period. (B) Flow field assessed over a 1-year period. The lengths of flow vectors in both
panels indicate the displacements and are proportional to the rate of ice flow. Peak flow speed measured down the
center of Miles Glacier is 155  10 m yr1 , and peak flow speed converging into Van Cleve Lake is about 86  10 m
yr1 , according to analysis of the 8-year image pair (panel A). Results from the 1-year pair (panel B) yield almost the
same numbers, indicating little if any change in flow speed for the periods represented by the two image pairs. Figure
can also be viewed as Online Supplement 13.17.

terminus came within 400 m of the Million Dollar

13.3.4.3 Childs Glacier: Exemplifying how
difficult it is for a glacier to dam a
perennial river
In 1910, just months after the Kennecott Copper
Mine began shipping ore across a newly completed
rail line through the Chugach Mountains via the
Copper River corridor, the Childs Glacier began
to surge (Tarr and Martin 1914). The Childs Glacier
Bridge. Today, the vegetated moraine left by that
advance is still visible (Fig. 13.19F). Childs Glacier,
though moving quickly, has neither advanced nor
retreated very far since. Childs Glacier is thermo-
mechanically buffered by the Copper River. Any
advance causes the river to be diverted and to
deepen as it is pushed toward the opposite shore,
and this induces an increase in calving rate, thus
 Case studies: Glacier inventorying and assessment of glacier dynamics 325

Figure 13.19. ASTER image time series of the Childs Glacier calving terminus where it fronts the Copper River (A,
B, C)—no significant changes in calving front location have been detected. Ground-based photos and low-altitude
oblique air photos show the clean-ice calving face as well as a grounded debris-covered section of the terminus (D,
E, F). Figure can also be viewed as Online Supplement 13.18 and as Online Supplement 13.16 where the ASTER
time series may be viewed at higher resolution for better discernment of changes, including ice flow.

tending to offset the advance. Conversely, if the
glacier tends to retreat from the river due to climate
change or some other change, then calving declines,
which tends to offset the retreat. Hence, it would
take an uncommon change in the mass balance state
to cause either a complete retreat from the river or
crossing and damming of the river.
13.3.4.4 Allen Glacier: A century of decay of a
mighty piedmont glacier
Although there is almost no prior history of field
studies of Allen Glacier, we have made repeated
field visits to the glacier in the last few years. Our
work is still in progress, but here we report selected
observations regarding the glacier’s specific bal-
ances in the ablation zone and the history of lake
growth and debris emplacement and migration. As
far as the ablation measurements reported here are
concerned, we view them as a field check on remote-
sensing results, particularly those of Berthier et al.
(2010), as well as a rough indication of what is
happening on the century scale. Fig. 13.16 shows
the century-long evolution of Allen Glacier’s pied-
mont lobe into a forested, debris-covered detached
slab of thermokarstic ice. In Fig 13.20 three data
records document the century-long growth of
Allen Lake and other lakes on the former piedmont
lobe.
Differential ablation on the still active partly
debris-covered glacier tongue has produced high
relief of medial moraines (Fig. 13.21), in places
326 Multispectral image analysis of glaciers and glacier lakes in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska

Figure 13.20. A century of growth of Allen Lake and retreat of the glacier’s former piedmont lobe. (A) Piedmont
lobe (yellow) as it existed in 1910 (National Geographic map) when small supraglacial and ice-marginal lakes had
begun forming (dark blue). Fig. 13.16C indicates that part of the distal region was already vegetated, and other
parts—now vegetated or lakes—had been barren moraine-covered ice. (B) A large lake had formed by 1948
(medium blue), according to USGS mapping, and the glacier had retreated (orange) but still maintained a piedmont
lobate form. The map product has fairly low quality but contains useful information on lake development and retreat
of the piedmont lobe. The abandoned part of the former piedmont lobe was then presumably stagnant ice-cored
moraine. (C) An ASTER image in 2003 showed further lake development (light blue) and retreat of the active glacier
(red), leaving an additional annulus of stagnant ice-cored moraine (orange) interior to the older ice-cored moraine
(olive-green). (D) ASTER false-color image for reference. Figure can also be viewed as Online Supplement 13.19.

Figure 13.21. The considerable extent of ablation between 1910 and a field site visit in 2009. (A, B) Typical areas
of exposed ice and thinly debris-mantled ice. (C) ASTER false-color image with a superposed GPS track produced
in 2009 (profile in panel D), and two elevation contours from a National Geographic map (Tarr and Martin 1914;
2010 data). The National Geographic’s 1,000-foot (304 m) elevation contour in 1910 crosses a GPS transect that
indicated a 2009 elevation of about 130 m, indicating a mean surface lowering at the crossing location of about 174
m in 99 years, or a mean rate of 1.75 m yr1 . This location is covered by a few centimeters of debris, enough to cause
a small insulating effect and slight retardation of ablation rates. The differential ablation of debris-mantled areas and
relatively clean ice has produced elevated medial moraines having about 10–40 m of relative relief (D, E). The
detached, vegetated lobe in 1910 stood near 152 m elevation (C) and today is close to 90 m, indicating 0.6 m yr1
of ablation. Figure can also be viewed as Online Supplement 13.20.
 Case studies: Glacier inventorying and assessment of glacier dynamics 327

Figure 13.22. The landslide emplaced around 1963 or 1964 (possibly related to the 1964 Great Alaska Earth-
quake) has been deformed and swept downvalley by ice flow. (A) Hillshade produced from an ASTER DEM. The
large landslide, many smaller ones, and other supraglacial debris (B–G) have resulted in differential ablation, which
is well resolved by the hillshade. Note in panel D an exposed ice ablation hollow in an area that is now heavily
vegetated and in 1910 was mapped as barren heavily debris-covered ice. Figure can also be viewed as Online
Supplement 13.21.

exceeding 40 m. Information is available on the rates of 0 to 1 m yr1 reported by Berthier et al.

century-long downwasting of the glacier tongue
and the former but still ice-cored and still ablating
piedmont lobe (Figure 13.21). One point has lost
about 174 m of elevation in 99 years between 1910
and 2009. This is a lightly debris-covered area, with
enough debris to slightly retard ablation; however,
the mean thinning rate of this one point was about
1.75 m yr1 . This is roughly double the mean rate of
negative balance tabulated by Arendt et al. (2008)
(Table 13.3), but their value refers to the whole
glacier and covers a more recent time period. Our
value ( just for one point in this case) is consistent
with the thinning of Allen Glacier’s tongue reported
by Berthier et al. (2010) (1 to 2 m yr1 thinning
between the 1950s and 2007). The points of the
detached debris-covered heavily vegetated ice-cored
piedmont lobe have lost about 0.6 m yr1 according
to our analysis, consistent with the lower thinning
(2010) for the 1950s and 2007.
Supraglacial debris is important on Allen
Glacier, as it is on many glaciers of the Chugach
Mountains. High seismicity (Fig. 13.2D) and high
erosional debris production rates (Fig. 13.3) have
been important in the history of landsliding in the
region (Uhlmann et al. 2013). The effects of climate
warming, including the thawing of talus and other
unconsolidated debris, may also be affecting the
delivery of debris onto the surfaces of the region’s
glaciers, including Allen Glacier. Allen Glacier
shows the marks of many landslides, both big and
small; landslides are arguably the biggest single
cause of debris cover on the glacier.
A large landslide emplaced high in Allen
Glacier’s ablation zone in 1963 or 1964 (Fig.
13.22)—possibly related to the Great Alaska Earth-
quake—has provided a valuable additional means
328 Multispectral image analysis of glaciers and glacier lakes in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska

Figure 13.23. The landslide, most likely emplaced in 1964 or possibly 1963, has undergone deformation due to
glacial flow and has resulted in differential ablation due to the insulating properties of debris. (A–F) Low-altitude
oblique air photos acquired in July during three summers: 2008, 2009, and 2011. The landslide, which is about 7 km
long, up to 1,100 m wide, covers about 5 km 2 and is mainly about 0.5–1.5 m thick near the landslide terminus
(except for a scattering of boulders). It rests on an insulated platform of ice about 60 m high near the terminus. The
mean differential ablation rate was about 1.36 m yr1 from 1964 to 2008; this is probably close to the actual local
thinning rate of the clean-ice area high in the ablation zone, because the landslide-covered area is probably not
significantly melting except in the ablation pits produced by ponds (B, C). The height of the ice platform and the
amount of ablation diminish as the landslide is traced to higher elevations. Figure can also be viewed as Online
Supplement 13.22.

of assessing the differential ablation rates of the
landslide-covered area versus adjacent debris-free
ice. In this case, with the ablation season so brief
at an elevation of 600 m, the landslide probably
almost eliminates melting, and so the differential
ablation rate is close to the total ablation rate of
debris-free ice at that elevation. Our analysis repre-
sented in Fig. 13.23 indicates that the lower (distal)
part of the landslide has experienced total differen-
tial ablation of about 60 m from 1964 to 2008, or
about 1.36 m yr1 , again consistent with what Ber-
thier et al. (2010) have reported for Allen Glacier’s
ablation zone.
13.4 CONCLUSIONS
If we exclude Greenland and Antarctica, the
Chugach Mountains are among the most heavily
glacierized regions in the world. The largest alpine
glaciers in the world occur in the Chugach and
neighboring St. Elias Mountains. The region is

undergoing very rapid deglaciation under the in-
fluence of climate change. For many glaciers in
the region, as a result of major dynamical processes
and long response times making a direct link to
climate change becomes at the very least a challenge
(or impossible). Tidewater, lake, and river-calving
processes—important for many of the largest
glaciers in the region—contribute to dynamical
instabilities that are disconnected from climate
change. Debris cover reduces ablation rates and
extends response times. Surging causes an unstable
oscillation in glacier length and other size param-
eters and flow behavior. Variations in glacier hyp-
sometries also contribute to differences in mass
balance and dynamics. These variations in glacier
behaviors, features, and conditions in the Chugach
Mountains render the dynamic histories of most
individual glaciers very difficult to parse in terms
of causality, especially over periods as brief as the
satellite observational record. However, taken
together, the whole region is collectively losing ice
mass so rapidly and so consistently that climate
change must be driving the thinning and retreat.
Retreat and thinning was well underway when the
first detailed glaciological studies were done just
over a century ago; that early phase of retreat
was a response to the end of the Little Ice Age.
Retreat and thinning is now accelerating widely
through the region; acceleration is indicative of
more recent climatic warming known to be driven
mainly by industrial greenhouse gas emissions. The
long response times of many of the massive glaciers
in the Chugach Mountains imply that glacier thin-
ning and retreat is apt to continue to accelerate in
coming decades (see Chapter 33 of this book by
Kargel et al.). The sheer immensity of glacier ice
and variation of glacier types and dynamics in the
Chugach Mountains highlight the importance of
investigating their contribution to global sea level
rise, hazard development, and glacier and related
environmental responses to continued climate
changes.
13.5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was partially supported by NASA’s
International Polar Year and Science of Terra
and Aqua programs via the ASTER Science Team.
We thank Bruce Raup for a constructive review and
Jim Torson for helpful tips. ASTER data courtesy
of NASA/GSFC/METI/Japan Space Systems, the
References 329
U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team, and the GLIMS
project..
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